All Spec Ops now report to DOD only.

[BlueLucy]

WASHINGTON — Acting Defense Secretary Christopher Miller on Wednesday ordered the Pentagon’s top civilian overseeing the military’s special operations community to report directly to him, effectively elevating U.S. Special Operations Command to the same level of the Pentagon’s military departments.

The change makes the assistant secretary of defense for special operations and low intensity conflict a service secretary-like position responsible for the oversight and advocacy of the military’s special operations forces, said Miller, who is expected to serve in the Defense Department’s top job only about two months.

https://www.stripes.com/news/us/acting-defense-secretary-orders-top-special-ops-civilian-to-report-directly-to-him-1.652557

[Grasswire2]

1. buckle up, kids. nt

[FirstLight]

2. ....so what does this REALLY mean?

Special Ops in Iran? You know Trump has to blow something up before he leaves office, he has all that firepower, he wants to use it!

[2naSalit]

11. And Popouseo wants to blow them up too.

[Delphinus]

3. Oh my ...

[cilla4progress]

4. What is this

about???

[Arazi]

5. Special forces and Erik Prince's mercenary goons reporting to a Trumper

Who has been specially installed by a president whose refusing to accept his defeat.

Not good.

[Mike 03]

7. And, although perhaps it is unlikely, Erik Prince should be reconsidered

as we begin to (allegedly) pull troops out of Afghanistan, since he's tried to get his filthy paws on some government contracts to move his private army there.

General Mattis, McMaster, Kelly and others laughed him out of the Pentagon, but all those people who despised Prince's plan are long gone.

[Arazi]

8. I guarantee the void in US troops are being filled with Erik's goon squads

[4Q2u2]

9. 100%

He cannot get enough War.
Says a lot about someone intimately familiar with combat that he
Yearns for conflict. Corrosive soul.

[Nexus2]

6. Well, that's not troubling at all.

[Enterstageleft]

10. Go ahead, stupid...

try fucking with Special Ops. That is the BIGGEST, & possibly last mistake you could ever make.

[2naSalit]

12. No shit.

They still have an oath to keep and it isn't in Miller's favor or mf45's either.

[roamer65]

13. Remember the BBC drama "Threads", folks?

That one had it as a conflict in Iran.

[TomSlick]

14. That is simply bizarre and evidences a lack of understanding of the DoD role.

DoD is essentially a huge staff organization. It commands nothing.

The Secretary of Defense - confirmed or acting - is not in the chain-of-command. Special ops commanders fall within a chain-of-command to which they answer. That chain-of-command will eventually reach POTUS but will not go through DoD.

[sarisataka]

16. The SecDef is most certainly

In the chain of command.

I am not sure where people are getting the idea he is not. The President is CINC, followed by SecDef. Beneath him are the civilian Service Secretaries, then it goes onto the uniformed military members.

[TomSlick]

17. It's not what I was taught in numerous Army staff courses, but you are correct.

10 U.S. Code § 162(b):

(b)?Chain of command. --Unless otherwise directed by the President, the chain of command to a unified or specified combatant command runs--

(1) ?from the President to the Secretary of Defense; ?and

(2) ?from the Secretary of Defense to the commander of the combatant command.

I live and learn.

[JHB]

15. I suppose the real question is: Is this to conceal something in particular, or...

...is this Donnie throwing a MINE! MINE! MINE! tantrum and shutting off any avenue of outside accountability just for the sake of doing that?